As a means for providing information to a user, a computer program, operating on a computer system, displays textual and graphical information on an output display. A computer system, which operates in a multi-tasking environment, may contain more than one program resident in memory at the same time. In general, a windows operating system environment displays the textual and graphical information of each program in individual windows. For example, in a multi-tasking computer system, the computer may display a view for a word processing program in a first window, and a view for a spreadsheet program in a second window. If a user has activated several programs, then a window for each program is displayed resulting in the display of several windows.
A windows operating system environment permits the user to move the windows. Typically, a user moves the windows to accommodate a desired arrangement of the windows suitable for the user's requirements. For example, a user of a computer system may in the course of a project invoke the use of several programs. If each program displays a view for the program in a separate window, then the user moves the windows to accommodate a desired configuration when shifting the thread of execution for one program to another. Furthermore, a user may use the same set of programs when working on a project. Therefore, it is desirable to provide a windows system that provides a user complete flexibility to customize the arrangement of views that correspond to different programs.